May 1, 2002

Outlook - Plan A Meeting

By Teresa Lightle- Computer Training Coordinator

Using Outlook Calendar to Plan a Meeting

The days of phone tag, and multiple emails to compare calendars are over. You can use the Plan a Meeting option in Microsoft Outlook to compare calendars and make meetings/appointments. 

You've reviewed permissions on your computer (Tech Tips, April 1, 2002) and checked to see that you can view another users Outlook Calendars (Tech Tips, April 15, 2002). Now you can begin using the "Plan a Meeting" with others. 

To use this option, with Microsoft Outlook Calendar open on your desktop

• Choose Actions in the menu bar

• Then Plan a Meeting

• The Plan a Meeting Dialogue Box will appear.

• You can click the button Invite Others... this will bring up the Global Address Book. Here you can choose additional names of Attendees. If their calendar is available online, the other Attendees appointments will appear and compare to yours.

• Choose a first choice for start date and time as well as an end date and time. You can adjust the dates and times by using the drop down arrows to the right of the options.

• Choose a date and time which all attendees have available. To search for available times, you can use the AutoPick Button. This option will search for the first available time all of the Attendees are available.

• Once you have found a time that is agreeable, choose the Make Meeting button in the right bottom corner of the dialogue box. 

• An email message will appear with the Attendees names in the To box. The date and time of the meeting is already inserted into the message. You can key additional information into the body or the text or even use the attachment feature to add an agenda.

• Once all of the information has been added. Click on the Send button.

• The email message has been sent to all of the Attendees and the appointment has been added to your calendar. 

What the others will see

• When the others on the invited list receive the email they will see these options at the top of the email message.

• 

• The user can select one of the options for the meeting. 

• If the user chooses Accept or Tentative the appointment will be automatically added to their calendar and a response will be sent back to the organizer.

The E-Teacher

Finding what you want on the Web

Whether you are using a basic search engine or a meta search engine finding exactly what you want on the web can be a challenge. Try a few of these tips to help narrow down your information.

• Double check your spelling

• Adding or removing the letter "s" from the subject

  • Elephant vs. Elephants

• Using quotation marks around the key word to keep them together

  • "Civil War" will help sift through all the other subjects with Civil

• Using a Boolean search method to keep important words together

  • Art and History and European = History of European Art

  • Art but not modern

• Use information from one search to begin another.

  • A search for "James Marshall" will give you many sites, you will also find that his full name is "James Wilson Marshall" doing a second search using this information will have better results.

  • A search for the animal "hyena" will retrieve a large amount of hits, as well as give you a scientific name of Crocuta. Keying this information into the search box will result in a more focused web search.

• Use the + sign to keep items together.

  • German + Shepard

Good Web Sites for Educators

http://www.teachervision.com/ 
Sponsored by the Network Teaching Channel contains lesson plans and teacher tools

http://www.kids.gov/
Easy to use web site sponsored by the Federal Consumer Information Center.

 

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For Questions or Comments about this newsletter please contact: tlightle@bcoe.org

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